WASHINGTON — White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders brought a mixture of defensiveness and obfuscation to her briefing with reporters on Wednesday as she faced continued questions about Donald Trump Jr.’s recently revealed meeting with a Russian lawyer. It’s a strategy that has left the press — as well as some in the White House itself — deeply dissatisfied.

Trump Jr.’s meeting with the Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was first reported in the New York Times on July 8. Since then, there have been a slew of revelations about the meeting — including that Trump Jr. had been told the lawyer would provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to support Trump’s candidacy. The meeting has been the focus of intense scrutiny amid multiple investigations into Russia’s interference in the election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Trump Jr. insisted he did nothing wrong and said he did not leave the meeting with any incriminating information about Clinton.

A White House official, speaking anonymously to Yahoo News, expressed frustration at the efforts to dismiss the questions about Russia. The official suggested the correct response would be for the White House to state its willingness to cooperate with any investigation and let the process play out through proper channels rather than in the headlines. Instead, the official said, the White House has been unable to move past the scandal.

The first question posed to Sanders at the briefing was whether Trump and his son have had “any communications” over the “last couple of days.” She was also asked whether a report that the president helped his son craft his initial statement to the press was correct. Sanders had no answer.

“I’m not sure about specific communications and the nature of those conversations. I know that they’ve spoken at least at some point over the last few days, but beyond that I don’t have any other further details,” she said.

Sanders was asked about statements made by Christopher Wray, Trump’s nominee for FBI director, in his confirmation hearing earlier Wednesday. Questioned about the president’s view that the special counsel’s probe into Russia’s election interference is a “witch hunt,” Wray broke with Trump and said he doesn’t share that view. Asked to clarify, Sanders said the president “has made extremely clear his position on that, and it certainly has not changed.” Sanders was pressed about why the president might have the view the investigation is a “witch hunt” when that position is not shared by his proposed FBI director, by congressional investigators or law enforcement.

“Because the president knows very specifically any action or inaction that has been taken. And so I think that’s pretty clear,” Sanders said.

That answer led to even more questions, since the White House has claimed that Trump was unaware of his son’s meeting with the Russian lawyer, which was also attended by the president’s former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner. Later in the briefing, Sanders was asked how Trump could profess to be sure there was no inappropriate activity on the part of his campaign when he claimed to have no knowledge of key meetings that clearly did take place. Her response did not address the question at all.

“Once again, I think the president’s been very clear about his opinion on the matter,” Sanders said, revealing nothing about how the president could have drawn his conclusion.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders taking questions from journalists, July 12, 2017. (Photo: Alex Brandon/AP) More

Sanders was also asked about influential South Carolina Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy’s comment that the “drip, drip, drip” of scandal is “undermining the credibility of this administration.” She deflected to one of her favorite targets, the press, rather than responding to the fact this criticism came from a member of Trump’s own party.